Yale Philharmonia opens season Sept. 15 with Stravinsky piece

Yale Philharmonia opens season with Stravinsky piece, along with Vaughan Williams, Mozart

By Joe Amarante, jamarante@nhregister.com @Joeammo on Twitter

Published 1:32 pm, Friday, September 8, 2017

Photo: Photo Courtesy Of YSM

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Peter Oundjian conducts Yale musicians.

Peter Oundjian conducts Yale musicians.

Photo: Photo Courtesy Of YSM

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Peter Oundjian gestures while conducting at Woolsey Hall.

Peter Oundjian gestures while conducting at Woolsey Hall.

Photo: Photo Courtesy Of YSM

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Peter Oundjian

Peter Oundjian

Photo: Photo Courtesy Of Sian Richards / YSM

Yale Philharmonia opens season Sept. 15 with Stravinsky piece

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NEW HAVEN >> Like other Yale School of Music professors, Peter Oundjian has a world-class background: The Canadian import was a top violinist with Tokyo String Quartet who turned to conducting and has led the Colorado, Detroit and Toronto symphony orchestras (where he’s completing his tenure with “an enormous season,” he says).

But since 1981 he has lived in the Elm City, at least on those rare weeks when he’s not traveling, and he also leads the Yale Philharmonia, typically comprised of an accomplished set of graduate students at the Yale School of Music. The group will perform a challenging season opener Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. in Woolsey Hall.

Oundjian, 61, son of an Armenian father and English mother, was educated in England and still retains a classy British accent — and engaging manner.

In a phone call the other day, he previewed the Friday program at Woolsey, consisting of Tallis: “Why Fum’th in Fight,” performed by the Yale Voxtet; Vaughan Williams: “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis”; Mozart: “Symphony No. 40 in G minor”; and Stravinsky: “The Rite of Spring.”

“The Vaughan Williams is one of my absolute all-time favorite pieces, at least for strings, for sure. I was at the same school Vaughan Williams had been, so my whole youth, a lot of it was spent discovering the music of Vaughan Williams. This piece is an incredible inspiration, based on the Thomas Tallis piece, which we will have sung (by Yale Voxtet)... before we play, which is certainly novel. I’ve never done this before.”

The instrumental piece starts off restrained and slow “but it’s actually an incredible outpouring of emotions and is one of the most moving pieces of music ever written,” Oundjian says.

The Mozart symphony will be familiar to even casual fans of classical music, which will add entertainment value for the audience, “but this (program) is in a way a syllabus, as well, right? We’re getting together as an orchestra and I want them to experience as much different music as possible. ... Many of these musicians will be playing in professional orchestras within a year or two, so it’s really important that I get them a broad scope of repertoire.”

In the Mozart piece, that means using the classical style of playing “with much more energy in the bow for string players, crispness of rhythm and articulation and balance for the winds. And also an understanding of the delicate phrasing and the importance of flow and rhythm as it pertains to each movement.”

Playing as a “really clean ensemble” will also be required in the Stravinsky piece, a dramatic, jolting ride of uneven rhythms written as a ballet in 1913 that was greeted by a riot at its premiere — but proved to be revolutionary for composers.

“There was a scandal at the first performance, probably largely because the dance was so unusual,” says Oundjian. “It was so very different from anything that had been seen prior to this, and certainly very different from any kind of classical, romantic type of ballet style.”

The music itself, he says, “is phenomenally exciting and quite radical. ... What I love about this program is you really get three different orchestras, you know, all played by one orchestra. You couldn’t find three more contrasting approaches to how to use an orchestra.”

The first performance of “Rite of Spring” in Paris went crazy when the dancers, under the direction of famed choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky of the Ballets Russes, pushed a pagan sacrifice story line in whimsical costumes, the story goes. Stravinsky’s jarring music was matched by dancers’ convulsive jerks (think Elaine’s dance on “Seinfeld,” or maybe not). There was a scuffle in the audience among those who loved it and those who hated it.

As theverge.com puts it about the century-old event, the premiere “began with a bassoon and ended in a brawl.”

There will be no dancers out in front of the Philharmonia for “The Rite of Spring,” notes Oundjian, who says they’re not even needed, given the workout for musicians.

“I always say that if you go to a concert and you hear ‘The Rite of Spring,’ you’re also seeing, in a way, a kind of ballet. Because just watching it being performed, watching the energy and the interaction between the players and the podium...is quite an extraordinary physical experience.”

Oundjian says the whole point of the piece “is to actually dislodge one’s sense of rhythmic comfort. It’s magnificent and jarring at the same time.” And that influenced other composers to experiment in that early-19th-century time of changing art.

The Philharmonia is not to be confused with the Yale Symphony Orchestra, which itself is an “astonishing, wonderful orchestra of undergrads,” says Oundjian, many of whom are majoring in subjects other than music. “But... everybody in the Philharmonia has found a way to get into the Yale School of Music, which is one of the most competitive schools in the entire world now that it’s tuition-free. So you could be in Moscow or Paris or Budapest or Philadelphia or wherever and you want to get a master’s degree and continue your studying (and) if you manage to get into Yale...you get to study with, I would say, an extraordinary faculty on every level. And, you get the Yale environment, take Yale classes, which is an unbelievable opportunity.”

He credits Dean Robert Blocker for YSM’s gains and renovated facilities in the past 23 years.

Tickets for the concert are $10-$15, faculty/staff $8-$10, students $5-$10 at music-tickets.yale.edu. There’s a $3 surcharge on tickets purchased at the door.

YSM officials urge those attending to arrive early as the concurrent New Haven Grand Prix will necessitate road closures downtown.